Sky Views: Tech makes the London Marathon a world beater

Tom Cheshire, Technology Correspondent

In 1981, the first 7,747 people to run the London Marathon set off to the echoing boom of a 25lb cannon.

This Sunday, a klaxon will sound instead.

Tens of thousands of runners too far away to hear it will make an even quieter start. A chip in their shoe will silently record the point they cross the start line.

Just as quietly, technology has transformed the modern marathon.

The joint-winners of the inaugural 1981 race, Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen, have more in common with Pheidippides, the ancient Greek who ran the first, unofficial marathon back in 490BC (before expiring), than they do with modern competitors.

Last year's marathon raised a total of £59.4m - up from about £41.5m 10 years ago, despite having more or less the same number of runners. It remains the largest single-event fundraiser in the world.Tom Cheshire

At the elite level, research into biomechanics, diet and shoe design is pushing athletes' performances.

Algorithms now generate race-specific pacing for runners, tailored to their physiology and training.

In 1981, the world record for the marathon was 2 hours, 8 minutes and 18 seconds.

Today, it's tumbled to 2:02:57.

Now the race is on for the 'moonshot marathon' - the holy grail of a sub-two hour run, as described by Ed Caesar in his excellent book Two Hours.

Nike has launched a project dedicated to just that, called Breaking2.

Teams of scientists are crunching data for three hand-picked runners, to try and squeeze the extra 4% of effort it will take to break the two-hour barrier.

Central to that is new shoe technology.

Image:An athlete uses her mobile phone as she starts the London Marathon

Their latest version is so springy it's being investigated by the International Association of Athletics Federations to see whether it conforms to rules.

But those marginal gains have trickled down to everyone else - especially in terms of data. Most runners spend their training wearing GPS-watches.

Free apps automatically update with training runs and have dashboards showing performance against KPIs like speed, number of runs and distance - something available only to elite runners even a decade ago.

Then there's the less quantifiable impact of non-running specific tech.

My sister is running this year and says the Facebook group for her charity of choice, Heads Together, is "an amazing support network"; people sharing physical tips but also the personal stories of why they're running.

Live Q&As with experts give amateur runners access to tailored professional advice.

On top of that, technologies like music-streaming services, podcasts and audiobooks have made the long hours of training runs more bearable.

Image:Dick Beardsley (left) and Inge Simonsen (right) won the first London Marathon before the high-tech age

Even spectating has got easier. An app showing the position of every runner in real time makes it a lot easier to plot my Sunday pub itinerary.

But the whole point of the London Marathon is fundraising.

Sites like JustGiving, founded in 2000, and GoFundMe, founded in 2010, have made it easier to raise money than ever. They're turbocharged by social networks and email.

All that is the reason why last year's marathon raised a total of £59.4m - up from about £41.5m 10 years ago, despite having more or less the same number of runners.

It remains the largest single-event fundraiser in the world.

Technology always comes with drawbacks, sometimes severe ones.

It's hard to make that case for the marathon. If you find the begging emails and Facebook updates objectionable, you're probably the objectionable one.

That said, for all the help tech gives, 26 miles remains a very long way to run.